Here we share our Disney cruise packing tips and hacks for some great items to pack and take on board.

Disney Cruise Packing Tip 1

Packing Cubes

Packing cubes are, for me, essential to packing and organizing for any Disney trip. It is so much easier to pack certain items all together for each family member so you know where they are as soon as you get your luggage delivered to your stateroom! No more trying to find a pair of socks at the bottom of a suitcase.

This set is also nice as it comes with a laundry bag, but you can also use the plastic laundry bag that will be left in your stateroom.

We all know how many things you have to charge these days. However, Disney doesn’t seem to have caught up with this and does not provide enough wall sockets. The solution? We bought one of these chargers which means you can charge almost any USB devices quickly using only one socket.

We use it at home all the time now too and are very happy with it.

Extension cords and surge protectors are not permitted on a Disney cruise. This is a great solution to that socket shortage problem.

It gets hot on a cruise! We found this Frogg Toggs Chilly Pad Cooling Towel invaluable for keeping cool on our latest Disney cruise. We wet them with cold water and took it everywhere with us to cool us down.

It was particularly welcome on Castaway Cay as it was a very hot humid day.

We only bought one as we were trying them out. However, we liked them so much ordered more when we got back and will use them in the Disney parks as well. They are easy to wash and dry out easily.

The same idea as the water bottle of course but here you can carry hot beverages. Disney has free coffee on the pool deck. It’s not the greatest, but if you need your caffeine fix it does the job. The Disney cruise also has a very large selection of teas available at the drinks dispenser so the mug is useful for this too.

However, you need to know that over the door organizers are now PROHIBITED on Disney cruise lines. We take the shoe organizer and hang it in the closet. Do not hang things over the door or you will be charged $100 if there is any damage.

A great feature of a Disney cruise is that there is free soda, ice and water available 24/7. The not so great feature is that you have to go to the pool deck to get it. To save you trips up to the pool deck numerous times a day it is a great idea to take your own water bottle.

It also comes in very handy for shore excursions – no need to purchase the water bottle packages sold on the ship. The water is safe to drink on all Disney ships. You don’t have to spend extra money on buying bottled water.

It is a good idea to get a bottle combined with a spray (unless your child insists on using this feature rather too much)! The weather can be humid and hot and it is nice to have a water spray available. It is a great idea to take this to Castaway Cay with you so that you can cool down on the beach!

One way to save on the amount of luggage you take on your cruise is to accept that you will do some laundry during the vacation. Disney makes this easy as there are washers and dryers on many of the stateroom decks.

We always prefer to take our own laundry detergent such as Tide Pods Free and Gentle Detergent to save costs and also to save on the chances of being allergic to the cruise washing powder. The pods are easy to put in your luggage. You also don’t run the risk of getting washing powder all over your suitcase if it spills!

It is also a good idea to take some Dryer Sheets not only to use in the tumble dryer but you can also use them in your laundry bag and suitcase to keep them smelling fresh.

Disney Cruise Packing Tip 9

Lanyard

Your Key to the World is your key to everything on your Disney cruise. It is used for charging everything in the cashless world on board, as well as being your room key. So it is important to keep it safe. Of course, you can just keep your key in your pocket. However, we find we change clothes frequently in the day and always seemed to be wondering where we had put our key!

It is just easier to keep them in a lanyard – we then have a rule that everyone’s lanyard is hung up in the stateroom as soon as we walk in. My daughter is the only one who refuses – and she is the one always at Guest Services picking up a new key!

If you are a member of the Castaway Cay Club you will be given a lanyard as you board. However, we like to take our own as these are not very high quality. It can be fun of course to have some Disney themed ones.

There is plenty of hanging space in a Disney cruise stateroom but there never seem to be enough hangers. It is a good idea if you have space to take some plastic ones yourself so you don’t have to compete for who gets to hang up all their clothes!

No one wants to talk about it but sometimes sailing can mean feeling seasick. With the modern, very stable Disney ships it is unlikely you will experience it, but if you do you will want to be prepared. We have sailed in storms and very close to hurricanes and no one in our family has ever felt seasick. However, just in case we do pack sea bands!

Staterooms on a cruise are dark. If you have a child who has difficulty with this then you may want to bring your own nightlight. An alternative is to prop the bathroom door open with a towel and leave the light on. However, we think having this Disney Frozen themed night light will be a whole lot more popular with the kids!

This sounds like such a simple item but it is something we find so useful. We know that you have the Disney Cruise Navigator App now and we use this a lot. But we still prefer each evening to look at the paper edition of the Navigator and mark out with a highlight pen the things that we want to do for the following day.

We like to have different colors so each family member can have their own.

Yes we know it isn’t essential but it is so nice to have – and with the Kindle Fire now often priced at less than $50 it just too good a deal to pass up. There is so much to do on a Disney cruise, but you will want to find some time for relaxation. We now just bring our Kindle. It saves on packing heavy books as well as allowing us to access the internet and email.

Every Disney cruise has a Pirate Night. It is a lot of fun to channel your inner Jack Sparrow. They do sell pirate costumes for the kids on board. However, they are priced pretty high so you may want to be prepared and take something pirate themed with you. Not everyone dresses up but it is a whole lot of fun if you do!

You can find inexpensive accessories right up to deluxe pirate costumes for all members of the family.

A whiteboard is really useful to put on your stateroom door so that you can leave messages for the rest of your party. There is now the Disney Cruise App which allows you to text on board which is very useful but not everyone either has or wants to carry their phone around with them all the time. It’s sometimes just a good idea to go back to the no technology option and use a whiteboard!

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